So many sights to see in Salzburg!

I better write this blog now before I forgot all of the amazing things I have done in Salzburg! As I wrote before, on Monday I just hung out at my hostel, relaxed and recovered. One of my Aussie friends from Munich, Lonnie (sp?), showed up as well. I met several other people here and hung out with a few of them over the last few days. I watched The Sound of Music that night with a huge group at my hostel. They play it every night here! Salzburg is where it takes place and you can see many of the sights from the movie all around town. That is probably the 2nd most famous thing about Salzburg, with the first being Mozart.

On my first full day here, Tuesday, after poring over all the brochures and maps of the sights in town, I decided to buy a 3-day Salzburg card and do it all! Paid 37 euros for it, and it covered every attraction in town plus public transport. I calculated today (my last day of the card) that the full price of everything I did was 138 euros! Not a bad deal...

After eating a huge buffet breakfast at my hostel, I spent all day sightseeing on my own Tuesday, 8 and a half straight hours! I ended up taking over 400 pictures! I still have no idea how I could have taken that many. I will go through and delete quite a few that aren't that interesting, just keep the better ones. First stop was the huge fortress on the hill overlooking all of Salzburg (it is in the background of a lot of Sound of Music scenes). I took the funicular (tram) up the side of the mountain and got amazing views of the city. The castle was pretty big and fairly interesting. There were plenty of small museums throughout, but the views were the highlight. I walked into the beautiful old town next, poked around the cathedral and the monuments in the various squares. I went to the Salzburg Museum which gave a history of the town and the important people that have lived here. Went to the Salzburg Gallery which actually had a whole lot of Dutch and Flemish paintings, including some Rembrandts, plus some modern art. I hopped on the bus next and headed south of the town to Hellbrunn. This was a pleasure palace built by the royalty in the 17th century, I believe. The palace was pretty uneventful, though the gardens were beautiful. The real highlight, however, is the trick water fountain tour. It was a guided outdoor tour behind the palace through a long series of fountains and water devices that some king used to entertain his guests. Everyone gets pretty wet, because the guide turns on the various jets at different times, and you have no idea where the water will come from. There were a couple grottos where we walked in dry and came out running from the spray! There was also a stone table and chairs, the only chair without a jet in it is for the king at the head of the table. That's where the control for the jet is, of course.

After the water sports, I walked through the gardens, up the hill to the Folklore Museum. Not too exciting so I hiked further up for some fantastic views before heading to the zoo nearby. The zoo was fairly impressive, there were separate sections for Africa, South America, Asia, and Austrian, among others. The snow leopards were pretty cool looking, the brown bears were the cutest swimming and playing with each other. Didn't see the falcons, they must have been sleeping. I got back on the bus and headed even further south to a small town. I got on a cable car (gondola, basically) that took me all the way up into the mountains! It was about a 12 min ride to get to the 1900 meter peak where the views were incredible. I could see the Austrian Alps, lakes, villages, Salzburg in the distance. I got lucky that the only clouds were on the way up the cable car, but it was very clear up top. I wish I had gotten there earlier because there were hiking trails all over the place. I got there so late in the day I had only 20 mins before the last car down. It was very cold and windy up there, but the views were so good I didn't mind one bit. I headed back to my hostel after an exhausting day. I grabbed some food, hung out in the lounge, and uploaded all my photos.

Yesterday, Wednesday, I decided to slow it down a bit with the sightseeing. I had done so much, I realized I was going to get through my 3 day Salzburg card in only 2 days! And you can't do any of the sights twice... So I stayed close by, saw the 4th century Christian Catacombs, then hit the two modern art museums. The first was mostly landscape photography and not so interesting considering all the pictures I have taken myself on this trip! The much bigger Salzburg Modern Art Museum up on the hill adjacent to the fortress was very impressive. I took the lift straight up to the top of the mountain. The museum had a lot of stuff, but the best was the sculptures. I generally prefer paintains over sculptures, but this modern art was really fascinating. I spent awhile just walking around a few of them and staring. I got caught taking pictures of them (it's happened a lot on this trip!) so I had to put my camera away halfway through. I still don't understand why they care so much about a photo of a stone object. After the museums I walked down to the river for a cruise! It was on a medium sized boat for about 45 mins and I saw most of Salzburg. The river moves pretty quick so the boat has a couple of jet engines to move upstream. It was a nice relaxing way to sightsee while Mozart played in between the commentary. Next was the Mozart Residence where he lived as a kid. Not particularly interesting, mostly stuff about his family, nothing about his music/compositions. I went to the main park in town next and ran into Lonnie and another friend from my hostel. We walked through the beautiful park, saw some of the settings from the Sound of Music (the rows of trees they danced through) and took some fun pictures. The three of us headed back to the river, bought a couple of beers a piece from the store, and hung out next to the bike path right on the river. We chatted for a couple of hours and headed back to the hostel when it started getting cold. I stuffed myself at the all-you-can-eat buffet at my hostel for dinner. Hung out in the lounge again last night with some new people that showed up.

This morning, I headed out to the train station to meet my friend Uttara who I met in Munich at the Hofbrauhaus. She is from North Carolina (though born in India). She missed her first train, so I had to wait an hour for her to get there. No matter, she only had one day in town, and as I seem to have become the expert on Salzburg (people at my hostel ask me every question about the sights), I showed her around to some of the cool places. We went to the last two things on my Salzburg card I wanted to see as well. First was Mozart's birthplace, which was much more interesting and had a better museum than the residence where he lived later on. Next thing was to walk through the tunnel under the mountain to the other side of town for the Stiegler Brewery tour. I obviously saved the brewery tour and tasting for the last stop on my Salzburg card! We did the self guided tour and enjoyed the beer tastings outside. That brewery is pretty old, started in 1492. After we walked back into town, did some window shopping, and found a very good Austrian restaurant for dinner. I don't think my meal could have been more authentic, it was rolled ham, pork, sausage, potatoes, dumpling, and sauerkraut! A whole lot of food which tasted fantastic. After dinner we walked along the river and over the bridge and I got some nice night pictures of Salzburg. I walked Uttara back to the train station and she headed back to Munich.

Tomorrow morning I am getting on a train to Vienna! I booked a hostel for tomorrow night that has a reputation of being a place to party. I had been hoping to go to somewhere else in Austria first, like Graz, but trains are the only real transportation in this country, and it costs 50 euros to go anywhere. So Vienna is next, not sure for how long. I am excited for some fun this weekend in addition to the amazing sights Vienna has to offer! After Vienna will be Bratislava. It's right next to Vienna in Slovakia. So my first excursion on this trip into Eastern Europe will begin soon! Might go to Budapest after that, but I can't say for sure as I never plan more a day or two ahead. Well, it's October now, the month I am supposed to return home. I will announce now that I will not be on my originally schedule flight home on October 22nd. I'm not quite ready to divulge my plans as I am still mulling my options and I have not made any firm decisions. All I have to say is I love Europe and won't be returning home in the immediate future!